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After several terms as the treasurer of Louisiana, John Kennedy won a runoff election for a vacant Senate seat in December and was sworn in this past January. Despite being new to the job, Kennedy is one of several Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. As a member of the committee, Kennedy is taking part in the confirmation hearing for Fbi DirectorNominee Christopher Wray and making the most of the opportunity by describing how he wants Wray to handle the job.

Kennedy speaks for a bit before getting to his question, and it’s honestly something to watch because it’s so odd how he pictures his ideal FBI director:

“I worry about the perception that some Americans might have about the FBI based on some of the testimony that this committee and others have heard in the past, not today. Here’s what I’m looking for: I want you to be apolitical, I don’t want you to exhaust yourself making political friends up here. I want you to be Socrates. I want you to be Dirty Harry with the bad guys. I want you to tell me how you’re going to do that in this environment.”

It’s interesting to note that the “Dirty Harry problem” refers to the phenomena of police using unconstitutional means as the only way to achieve justice, a no-no both legally and morally.

So, the FBI director should be non-partisan and a philosopher, but also a loose-cannon detective who isn’t afraid to get his hands, uh, dirty as long as justice prevails? Senator Kennedy is saying that a man who earlier pledged loyalty to the constitution should be prepared to violate the constitution. Good gravy.